DW BUREAU / Chandigarh In a major breakthrough, the Punjab Excise and Taxation department, in a joint operation with the Fatehgarh Sahib Police, has successfully apprehended a GST fraudster for ingenuine ITC claimed by him amounting to Rs.3.65 Crore. Revealing this in a press communique issued here, Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema said that a show cause notice under section 74 of the Act ibid was served upon accused Deepak Sharma s/o Surinder Pal Sharma by the Deputy Commissioner State Tax, Ludhiana on January 25, 2023, confronting him about ingenuine ITC claimed by him amounting to Rs. 3.65 Crore but he neither deposited the tax nor submitted any reply. Thus, an order under the section of the Act ibid was passed by the adjudicating authority on June 13, 2023, and a demand of Rs. 11.75 Crore was created including Rs 4.45 crore as interest and Rs 3.65 crore as a penalty, said Cheema. He further added that an investigation was conducted by TIU and the Sales Tax Officers and it was found that Deepak Sharma had submitted a forged GST Registration Certificate to a Bank. He said that this bank account has been frozen by the Bank at the request of Sale Tax Officer Fatehgarh Sahib and a recovery notice for Rs 26 lakhs has been sent to the said Bank. He said that a special task force constituted by the SGST Department acting on meticulous intelligence gathered over several weeks conducted simultaneous raids along with the Fatehgarh Sahib police at multiple locations linked to the accused. He said that the authorities are in the process of identifying and pursuing all entities involved in this fraud, an FIR has been registered, and further investigations are underway to determine the total extent of the fraud and recover the evaded taxes. Meanwhile, the Finance Commissioner Taxation cum Additional Chief Secretary Vikas Partap said that the department has been working on a data analytic software to identify those who generate fake ITC, and will take strict against them. Finance Minister Cheema said that this successful operation highlights the strong inter-agency cooperation and determination of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab government to combat GST fraud. He reiterates the government's zero-tolerance stance against tax evasion and warns that such fraudulent activities will be met with the full force of the law.
(editor@dailyworld.in)